


first impressions (don't) matter

by nanetys



Category: iKON (Kpop)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-05-06 16:54:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5424689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanetys/pseuds/nanetys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Donghyuk is determined to not let Jiwon and his friends approach him.</p>
<p>(And he fails. Miserably.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	first impressions (don't) matter

**Author's Note:**

> I got the idea from here: http://cheese3d.tumblr.com/post/76066061389/anyone-please-ask-your-crush-out-like-this  
> It's kind of a troublemaker/nice kid!au but not really? anyway I hope you enjoy! (also feel free to let me know if you find any mistakes~)

Donghyuk stares at his new school as he stands at the front gate, trying to get its minimum details in order to know it well – both the school walls and the school uniform students had to wear ae in shades of light blue and white; they have a fairly nice garden near the gym; a large courtyard; and he knows the school’s classrooms’ have good lightning. It seems to be – as the principal had told his parents – a school that would live up to his intelligence, which his former school had been failing to do.

That, of course, is a lot of bullshit Donghyuk told his Family – he just got tired of a bunch of boys who kept terrorizing him for being ‘an easy target’ (their words). His mother believed without a second thought, and before the last semester was over, she had already found a new school for him. He just had to endure a few more months, and then he was free and ready to begin a new life.

Now, _of course_ , he knows the game’s rule – he is going to dedicate to his studies as always, and he is going to stay away from all the troublemakers and popular kids and he is _not_ going to show himself as _an easy target_. His mistake was to let them make the first prank on him – the most stupid ever; a note with a thousand of offenses stuck to his back –; since then, he was never let in peace. But, this time, he is going to avoid that – he is going to finish High School as smoothly as possible. It’s a nearly perfect plan.

**X**

On his second day of classes, a group of kids from his school almost kills him as they skateboarded on the _sidewalks_ – they are probably going to school, and Donghyuk knows very well that skateboards are utterly forbidden.

He isn’t surprised, though, since he knows them – by sight, at least. Two of them are from the school’s soccer team, and they had had a match against Donghyuk’s former school the year before – who lost the match. They had gotten so furious that the captain of his former school’s team shoved the team’s mascot to the ground. When they were leaving, both teams had an argument that ended up with two players rolling on the floor as they fought. The quarterback of his school’s team ended up with a broken nose and a black eye; but his opponent – a boy called _Kim Jiwon_ – left with only a bleeding lip.

For a few weeks, Donghyuk let himself believe they had fought because that Kim Jiwon saw what they did to the poor mascot, and let himself have hope that maybe in his future school people were kind and sweet.

However, two weeks later, he found out that the boy who broke the quarterback’s nose had made fun of them for losing, and that’s what triggered the fight, and his all his hopes died then.

He looks at the boys passing by him on their skateboard; Kim Jiwon is there – Donghyuk makes sure to memorize the others’ faces so he doesn’t get near Kim Jiwon or any of his friends.

**X**

The rest of the week goes smoothly and uneventfully – when Friday comes, Donghyuk feels terribly happy. He met some pretty nice people, classes were as great as he thought they would be and he hasn’t been the target of any pranks or whatsoever so far. He managed to stay away from all the potential troublemakers of the school and their _potential_ bullying.

So far, all is fine.

So, obviously, Kim Jiwon would be in the literature club Donghyuk had joined as soon as classes started.

He doesn’t even know what to do when he sees _him_ there; he waits outside, hoping he would leave soon – hoping he is there just to talk to someone. But then, it’s two o’clock and Jiwon puts his backpack on the floor as he gets closer to Suhyun, who is laughing at some joke he’s made.

Feeling like he’d rather swallow a cup full of acid, Donghyuk gets in the classroom and sits as far away from Jiwon as possible. He wonders for a minute if maybe it would be better to be quiet the whole time and not draw attention to himself. But then they open one of Lovecraft’s book and _what the fuck_ he is NOT getting intimidated by one of them. He joined that club – and the history club, the biology club, the chemistry club and the philosophy club (he tried the physics club and politics club, too, but the school doesn’t allow them to join more than five clubs) – so that he can talk and enlarge his knowledge.

Besides, the first step to get respect is showing that he is not afraid.

He talks more than almost anyone there does – Hayi coming first on that. Jiwon barely speaks, instead staring at him with dumbfounded expression of someone who’s _clearly_ not understanding a word he says. It _does_ give Donghyuk some pleasure, and when the meeting’s over, he gathers his things feeling proud as if he won some kind of battle.

**X**

Jiwon is in the literature club because he was forced to, Suhyun tells him, the next week. His grades on literature had been poor last year, so the teacher made this arrangement in order for him to ‘ _compensate_ ’ his grades.

According to Suhyun, he is a nice and funny guy; but Donghyuk remembers how he broke the quarterback’s nose, and _who_ started the fight, so can’t quite believe it. However, as long as he stays as quiet on every meeting of the club as he did on the first one, everything is going to be fine – it’s not like they need to meet on different occasions.

So it’s completely understandable why Donghyuk nearly panics when he sees Jiwon and a group of friends sitting on the benches of the gym when his class is supposed to be taking their P.E. classes. He talks to his teacher and finds out that those students had a free period so they asked to stay there with the promise of not getting in the way of the class. The rest of the group should be in the garden or in the courtyard, and Donghyuk wishes _all of them_ were there.

It’s not like he’s bad at P.E. – he had gotten a lot better last year, and he’s starting to actually get some muscle. But, honestly, it’s going to be kinda hard to stay away from troublemakers if they follow him everywhere.

He tries to go through the class as he always did – with the same passion and dedication he had for everything _school related_. His performance is good enough that one of his classmates tells him he wasn’t expecting a _nerd_ like Donghyuk to be that good. He’s grateful for the compliment, but he feels Jiwon staring at him and it’s driving him crazy – he’s the first to get to the changing room, and makes sure to leave hiding behind two of his classmates, praying he’s as invisible as possible.

But then he looks at Jiwon, and his heart nearly stops when he realizes he is looking back at him.

**X**

Finding Jiwon at his P.E. classes on Wednesdays and at the literature club on Fridays becomes a routine. Donghyuk pretends to ignore him, but he feels terribly conscious of the way Jiwon always stares at him. He tries as hard as possible to pretend that He Is In Control, and he can only hope Jiwon thinks the same.

Aside from that, things are pretty nice and he’s made many friends already. There’s Hayi and Suhyun, from literature club – Hayi can be pretty bossy and scary, but she can also be surprisingly friendly and funny; and Suhyun is the cutest freshman he’s ever met. There’s also Junhoe, who is in his classroom – he spends most of the classes sleeping, but he declared he didn’t like _that Jiwon guy_ either; having the same tastes as Donghyuk for games and TV shows is only a pretty nice bonus.

There’s also Hanbin, from history club – he’s also bossy, but also funny and awkward sometimes. However, he is one of Jiwon’s friends, so Donghyuk can’t quite consider him his friends, even if they always spend more time than they should talking during the club’s activities.

**X**

Everything was going fine – until Jiwon and his friends decided to change the table they always sat during lunch. And, of course, they chose to share Donghyuk and Junhoe’s table, as if the two weren’t even there.

Donghyuk feels his bones freezing, and Junhoe seems ready to throw his muffin at someone’s face. Hanbin is there, and he waves at Donghyuk while Jiwon tells him something. There is a freshman who seems to be always with Hanbin there, another junior, like Jiwon, and a senior student.

Trying to ignore them, Donghyuk goes back to talking to Junhoe – who is determined to speak louder than usual. The senior student seems a bit _annoyed_ by it, but he doesn’t say anything; the others barely seem no notice.

Yet, when lunchtime is over, the five of them make sure to say goodbye to Junhoe and Donghyuk – who feels like being swallowed alive by the floor.

**X**

So, in the end, having lunch beside Jiwon also becomes a routine. Junhoe and Donghyuk actually thought of changing tables, but both decided they would not give in that easily.

For almost a month, the managed to spend most of the time pretending all is the same – and, except for the goodbyes, it really is. After a few days, Donghyuk started to _really_ ignore them and focus on whatever he was talking about to Junhoe.

And that’s why he feels his soul leaving his body when Hanbin holds his shoulders while he talks to Jiwon.

“You’re telling me he is also the biggest pain in Hayi’s ass?”

Donghyuk gulps, while Junhoe frowns, and both stare at Hanbin, who acts as if everything was as normal as ever.

“Yeah, man, I’m telling you, I’ve seen him leaving her speechless like, two times at least.” Jiwon answers, while one the senior student rolls his eyes and mutters “ _twice_ ”, though no one seems to notice.

“You _have_ to teach me how to do it.” Hanbin now looks at Donghyuk, who’s still trying to grasp _what the fuck is going on_. “Every time I try to have an argument with her, she K.Os me.”

“But that’s only because you’re a chicken and are scared to death of her.” Jiwon laughs, taking a bite of his hamburger, and doesn’t wait until he’s swallowed it before he goes on: “Donghyuk doesn’t shrink like you do every time she raises her voice.”

“ _I don’t_!” Hanbin lets go of Donghyuk’s shoulders, crossing his arms.

“Yes, you do.” The other junior says, and lets out a chuckle. “You can barely look at her in the eyes.”

But Donghyuk doesn’t really pay attention, too startled by the knowledge that _Jiwon knows his name_. He tried so hard to go unnoticed, and yet…

He takes a deep breath. Ok, he needs to _keep calm_. Apparently, Jiwon doesn’t see him as a target, right? He actually seems impressed by Donghyuk. Nothing to fear.

Except… the boys in his former school also pretended to be nice every once in a while when they were planning a more elaborate prank.

“How can you even talk to him, though?”

“We don’t talk about school related stuff. And when he starts using hard words I tune out.”

It takes some time for Donghyuk to realize Jiwon is now talking to Junhoe – _the traitor_. He wants to kick his friend’s face, but decides to do so later. Right now, the priority is to show them he still _is not intimidated._

“ _Parallelepiped_ is not a hard word.” He finally says, staring straight at Junhoe – and surprised by how calm and collected he sounds.

“Yes it is when you could have said _rectangular_ instead of _parallelepiped shaped_.”

“It’s not the same, Junhoe.”

“Donghyuk’s right.” The junior guy says. “Parallelepiped is not exactly a synonym for rectangular.”

Junhoe snorts just as the bell signaling lunch is over rings. As usual, Jiwon and Hanbin’s group stand up first as they say goodbye – however, this time, Jiwon does it as he ruffles Donghyuk’s hair, and he doesn’t know if he should blush or _cry_.

**X**

From then on, Donghyuk finds himself interacting with Jiwon more than it had been his initial plan. He and Junhoe were always invited to join their talks during lunch; Jiwon always talked to him when they met at the literature club and always greeted him during his P.E. classes.

(There was even one time when Jiwon stopped him to tell Donghyuk he had been great on the class; he still wishes he hadn’t blushed so violently at the compliment.)

On the bright side, Jiwon and his friends don’t seem that bad anymore. The junior guy and the senior guy – Yunhyeong and Jinhwan – were both super nice and polite and, as Donghyuk would find out later, they are never included on the ones who go to school on their skateboard, and both kind of disapproved of it. The freshman, Chanwoo, can go from nice and cute to the devil’s spawn in minutes, but he’s mostly fun. None of them seems to fit what Donghyuk imagined _Jiwon’s friends_ to be.

But then, Jiwon is also completely different from what he first imagined.

Jiwon always makes jokes at the most inappropriate times; he is loud and obnoxious but he is also surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) friendly.

However, Donghyuk could quite get the image of the quarterback and his broken nose out of his head.

And _yet_ , when Hanbin looks at him during one of their lunches and asks him who’s his favorite hyung, Donghyuk answers, without a second thought:

“Jiwon hyung, of course.”

**X**

Maybe the worst was the “ _of course_ ”; or maybe the way Donghyuk had really enjoyed the hug Jiwon gave him as laughed loudly; or maybe the fact that the answer had been completely and utterly honest.

He’s still scared of the possibility that he’s falling for a very elaborate and intelligent prank; but now Jiwon hugs him more often and each hug makes Donghyuk’s heart beat in a way that has nothing to do with fear.

His _nearly_ perfect plan is going astray, and Donghyuk knows he needs to do something to fix it.

**X**

“Hanbin?”

Hanbin is putting his books inside his backpack; everyone else from History club has already left, so Donghyuk figures this might be the best time to talk to Hanbin about Jiwon.

“Hm.” Is the answer he gets, while Hanbin still gathers his stuff.

“Jiwon-hyung... what kind of person is he?”

Hanbin finally looks at him, one of his brows raised, and lets out a snort.

“Why are you asking it all of a sudden? You know him too.” He stops to make a face. “Isn’t he your _favorite hyung_?”

“It’s just that... _a thing_ happened last year and…” Donghyuk feels his palms sweating. He can’t look straight at Hanbin, so he opts to stare at the floor, feelings the blush spread on his cheeks. “At my old school, there… there was a guy who, hm, got his nose broken. By Jiwon-hyung. And he… He was the one started the fight. Jiwon-hyung.” He finally looks at Hanbin, who is staring at him with a very serious look on his face. “Jiwon-hyung is always nice to me, but I don’t know what to think of it and I didn’t know who else I could to talk to.”

Sighing, Hanbin puts his backpack on his back, and walks closer to Donghyuk.

“Donghyuk, look... No one is perfect, ok?” he runs a hand through his hair. “Jiwon-hyung… His ego is the size of an elephant and his judgement is the size of an ant. Sometimes he says stuff without thinking and then he ends up on this fights.” Hanbin squeezes Donghyuk’s shoulder, and offer him a smile. “He’s not a bad person – he’s just a person like anyone else. He tries to be good, but sometimes he fails and that’s normal, right?”

Donghyuk mutters “I get it”, while he went back to staring at the floor. What Hanbin said makes sense, and now he feels like trash for antagonizing Jiwon so much without even getting to know him.

“And Donghyuk, one more thing.” Hanbin is already at the door, ready to leave. “You don’t have to worry. He _really_ likes you.”

**X**

Donghyuk is getting some books from his lockers while he hums along to the song he is listening too n his iPod when he feels someone tapping him on the back. He turns and a huge smile makes its way to his face when he sees Jiwon.

“’sup, Dongs.” Jiwon gets one of the books from his hands while Donghyuk takes out one of his earphones. “What the fuck is this bunch of books?”

“They’re for my classes!”

“You take your books to your classes?”

“Of course I do.” He gets the book back, chuckling. “How am I going to understand the classes without them?”

“Why would you try to understand your classes? Jesus, Donghyuk.”

“So I can keep on rocking on all the clubs I’m in.” he answers, still smiling. Jiwon smiles back and ruffles his hair.

“Of course. I wouldn’t want it any other away.”

**X**

It takes him five long minutes to realize something’s _off_ ; at first, he barely notices people staring at him. But when he gets to his classroom, the _giggles_ of two girls finally gets his attention, and the not so discreet way they point to his back makes him put his hand there.

He feels his heart _shrinking_ when he realizes there’s a piece of paper stuck there, right under his neck.

It was Jiwon, obviously; he was the only who touched Donghyuk, and the paper was exactly where he _friendly_ tapped his back earlier.

And he remembers then how it’s just the same as it was in elementary school – only there it had been less elaborated, and a lot less heartbreaking.

He feels really _really_ stupid. He can almost cry, but it’s not like he can do it in the middle of the corridor. He rips the paper off his back and storms into the classroom, going straight to the wastebasket. He doesn’t want to read it; it would only break his heart even more. But curiosity gets the best of him, and he gives it just a peek.

**X**

“What do you mean, you’re not going to have lunch with me today?”

Junhoe crosses his arms, looking a little but hurt; Donghyuk feels slightly guilty for abandoning him like that, and also for lying. But he knows Junhoe will forget him as soon as Jinhwan sat by his side. And, anyway, before telling him anything, he needed to make sure it wasn’t just a big misunderstanding.

“I need to go to the library. You can join me, if you want.”

“Ugh.” Junhoe made a face; Donghyuk knew he’d _never_ accept that offer. “I’d rather fry my brains, thank you very much. You’re like literally the only person who’d trade food for books, I swear to God.”

As soon as Junhoe turns his back to him, Donghyuk _almost_ sprint to the Mathematics classroom ( _almost_ because running in the corridors is forbidden and Donghyuk is a Good Student). He opens the door rather _uproariously_ , though; and Jiwon gets so startled he almost falls off the desk he’s sitting on.

“You can’t sit on top of desks, you know.” He says, trying to sound nonchalant – but his heart is almost beating its way out of his chest. Jiwon smiles at him, and he seems almost shy. _Almost._

“I thought you wouldn’t come.”

“Hyung,” Donghyuk gets from his pocket the piece of paper that _almost_ ended up on the wastebasket earlier that morning. “’ _It’s really hard not kissing you every time I look at you, you could help me with that by meeting me at the math class during lunch’_ , seriously?” Jiwon laughs, and Donghyuk couldn’t _not_ laugh too. “I always had the impression you were like, the king of pick-up lines or something.”

“First impressions can be misleading. Besides, you’re the brains here.” He answers, getting closer to Donghyuk and taking the paper off his hands. “So, you’re helping me or not?”

“That’s why I’m here.” Donghyuk puts his hands on Jiwon’s necks, pulling him closer.

“Good” Jiwon whispers, and finally brings their lips together in a kiss that’s way better than anything Donghyuk’s ever imagined.

First impressions are, in fact, very misleading.


End file.
